The net is cast

China's Xinjiang problem

WHEN China’s president, Xi Jinping, visited the north-western region of Xinjiang in late Mayhe spoke of spreading nets “from the earth to the sky” to capture terrorists. The increased concern of China’s leadership with domestic security coincides with an uptick in violence attributed to ethnic tension, and possible indications of growing links between Xinjiang and foreign Islamist extremists.

In the last eight months, since a flaming car ploughed into crowds in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, killing five, there has been an escalating number of attacks labeled as terrorist throughout the country. The government blames such actions on “religious extremists” from the Uighur community, a Xinjiang-based Muslim ethnic group. A key factor behind the upsurge in attacks, the government says, is the spread of extremist materials aligned with global jihad.

Mr Xi’s “nets” remark coincided with the launch of a year-long anti-terrorism campaign. State media reports that during its first month authorities busted 32 gangs and sentenced 315 people to prison or death for crimes including religious extremism, manufacturing guns, spreading propaganda and illegally crossing international borders. One sentencing of 55 suspects in front of a crowd of 7,000 at a sports stadium in Yili prefecture evoked China’s revolutionary era rallies. On June 29th a further 113 people with Uighur names were sentenced to prison terms in Kashgar, a city in western Xinjiang, for crimes including terrorism, inciting ethnic hatred, bigamy and drug trafficking.

The government has also renewed efforts to curb the spread of extremist material online. “[Terrorist suspects] exchanged experiences of making explosives and propagating jihad through chat tools, text messages and illegal preaching sites,” Xinhua, a state-run news agency, said. It added that Chinese police tracked over 100 pieces of terror-related audio and video content in 2013, compared with 32 in the previous year.

One concern is that some elements among Xinjiang’s Uighur population, long having chafed at Communist Party rule, are becoming radicalised. On June 24th state television broadcast a documentary (in Chinese) designed to suggest as much. The film included gruesome footage from past terror attacks and also clips of jihadist videos alleged to be from Xinjiang militants from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Details about ETIM, which seeks an independent state encompassing Xinjiang and other Middle Eastern countries, remain murky and contested. Stratfor, an American research outfit, says ETIM is the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) by another name. The TIP has lately expanded its online presence, issuing videos calling for a jihad by Uighurs, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank.

A report by the Wall Street Journal points out that the new wave of Uighur-language videos do closely resemble ones used by Middle Eastern jihadist networks. In one, men in balaclavas and camouflage garb train with swords in what is said to be the Gobi desert. In another scene militants burn Chinese and American flags. The amount of radical material on Uighur-language websites has increased as internet access in remote parts of the north-west has improved. The internet in Xinjiang, even more so than the rest of China, is heavily censored, driving Uighurs to use virtual private networks to access content from abroad.

Foreign analysts have long been sceptical about the links between Uighur separatists and the global jihadist independence movement. The unrest they say instead stems from resentment at Communist Party rule. There are around ten million ethnic Uighurs in China. Their language is Turkic and they practice Sufi Islam. Since the party wrested control of Xinjiang in 1949 there have been violent clashes. Some Uighurs protest what they say is cultural assimilation. In 1949, 76% of Xinjiang’s population was Uighur and 7% ethnic-Han. In 2012 Uighurs made up 46% while the number of people of Han ethnicity amounted to 39%. Grand infrastructure schemes and booming trade is transforming the region. But many Uighurs—especially those who do not speak Mandarin or who lack skills—feel they miss out on benefits that instead flow to Han migrants.

In the wake of spiralling unrest Mr Xi has called for tighter restrictions on religion and for greater assimilation. Critics argue such policies only increase the alienation of Uighurs. The party seems determined to quell even moderately dissenting voices. Ilham Tohti (pictured, in 2010), a prominent Uighur scholar known for his critical but judicious views, was detained in January and charged with inciting separatism. On June 26th Mr Tohti’s lawyer was able to see his client for the first time since his arrest at a prison in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital.Li Fangping, the lawyer, reported Mr Tohti’s state of mind was “very anxious” and that he had been held in leg irons for 20 days and denied food for eight. If convicted of separatism Mr Tohti could face a lengthy prison sentence or the death penalty. His detention continues to draw condemnation from human rights groups worldwide

The recent spate of terror attacks suggests that the government’s Xinjiang strategy is going badly awry. On May 22nd attackers drove two cars into a market in Urumqi, throwing explosives and killing 31 people. In April in a knife and bomb attack in the same city three people died. In March a group of Uighurs stabbed 29 people to death in Kunming, a city in the south-west. A recent review of China’s security environment by Chinese academics said terrorism in the country has entered an “active period”.

Meanwhile analysts who watch online jihadist content in other languages report references to Turkestan from non-Uighur militants are becoming more frequent. This suggests that Xinjiang may indeed be increasingly on the radar of a broader global jihad. If the videos are any indication Mr Xi will have to cast his net wide.